Preface: The following was first posted in May of 2019. I bring it back now because it has been the issue that has been dominating my life of late. R. C. Sproul's very last sermon after a ministry of fifty years was titled....A Great Salvation. His voice was raspy....and was full of passion. God had given him this final message to give to all of us....probably because we in evangelicalism have forgotten just how 'great' is this salvation bestowed upon us. Making America....'great'....has diminished the 'greatness' of the gospel in our minds....but the problem goes further back than Obama and Trump and Biden. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people I know personally who in the past two decades had been gloriously born again....shouting from the rooftops the name of Jesus Christ. I would need some kind of hand tally counter to add up the number who have merely turned to church in this crazy world. One of those people gloriously saved lives near me....as he went from darkness to glorious light.....and you can hear him on Christmas mornings.....singing loudly from his front porch....the glories of the birth of Jesus. His conversation always somehow includes the glories of God. This is being born again folks! This is not to say that those many people who saunter into some church every Lord's Day are not the redeemed of the Lord....but it is to say that they are kept from seeing the greatness of their 'great' salvation....if it is there....and therefore unable to discern the necessity of the new birth for their own loved ones. May God wake our pulpits up....for it is their responsibility....and they are in the midst of a 'great' failure of preaching that 'great' salvation.
Love Comes With A Cost
It was about five or six years ago....and I was working for an entire week with one man....for the first time....in a quiet spot....so we could talk while we worked. This man was funny....interesting.....(a rugby player)....and very outgoing....so I was free to open up a little also. He talked a lot about his father....and I enjoyed every minute of it.....then somehow.....God became the topic of the conversation.....funny how that happens to me so much. Anyway I had to find a way to say some serious things....by trying to slide them in sideways. I'm usually pretty good at this.....but this guy was smart....he knew what I was doing....even though I wasn't even sure what I was doing.....and he looked at me and said....."So you're saying that my father is in hell?" His father was not even mentioned....hell was not mentioned....everyone knows that you can't talk about hell today. I admit that I did want him to face.....sometime in the future......not exactly right then....that his loving and wonderful father must be born again just like all of us. There was a pause....I didn't try to get out of it....but I don't think that I pursued it any further either....the thought was planted in his head....and that's what I wanted.
This is a tough issue folks. Thinking about a loving parent who had died....without Christ....that's too much to ask of many of us. We'll change the gospel before we admit to that.
I loved my father. He passed away in November of 1979....and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I was lost in my sins at the time and therefore utterly useless to him in the matters of his eternal soul. I do not know my father's thoughts or the people he may have talked to before he succumbed to the disease that took his life.....but I do know this....Jesus Christ is the way.....and He is the truth.....and He is the life.....and no one comes to the Father except through Him....and one must be born....again....born from above....whether they realize it as such or not.
Discipleship comes with a cost. The least of this cost is that you may become a persona non grata on occasion....it may even be forever....this because you mention Jesus Christ so often....but letting your loved ones alone....and headed to hell.....without even trying....is an odd love....a love that must be investigated.....to see if it really qualifies as love.
Consider this....a dream maybe....you are lost and without Christ.....hanging by a rope over 'you know where'.....that rope begins to unravel....a Christian passes by.....you know him.....you always gave him the impression that you were a Christian even though you didn't even have the slightest idea what that really was....so in your need you shout out...."Friend....tell me about the Gospel of Jesus Christ!" He sees you.....waves.....and walks on by. You look up and the rope continues to unravel...."What must I do to be saved" you shout again....but no one responds.... they just smile and wave back....they assume that you are fine....the rope then breaks and you fall......it gets colder and colder.....the evil all around you makes your skin crawl.......you shout......"Nooooo!".....and then you wake up.
So the next time that you think about loved ones....and know that they are holding on to an unraveling rope also....remember this dream. Love at times comes with a great cost.....are you willing to pay it?
